Today we are honored to listen to Barbara Highland who placed first in the 7th Venus Index Transformation Contest.

Check out her beautiful transformation from the 12 Week Contest:

Barbara is fit and fabulous at age 44!

Read what Barbara wrote about her experience with Venus Index:

The Aztec Venus Story…..

I always believed that people who claimed to love the gym were crazy or compulsive liars. Who in his right mind could love being sweating instead of sleeping???

Three years ago I was in the middle of my worst nightmare, after two years of fertility treatments and three miscarriages, my newborn baby just passed away, doctors told me I was unable to carry another pregnancy and was 70 pounds overweight. When you have a baby and you are overweight you don’t care, because every time you see the baby you know it was worth every single pound of fat. But I had no baby, I was grieving, devastated, hopeless, bitter and horribly FAT…I could even see my cellulite with my clothes on!!!

Another year of unsuccessful fertility treatments to get a surrogate mother pregnant didn’t let me loose much of that weight, probably just around 20 pounds. After my last egg retrieval I decided that I was done with treatments and that this was my last one no matter what. I lost 40 pounds very fast and at the same time my surrogate mother got pregnant with one of those eggs, so I was thrilled. I was having a baby and was skinny again….flabby skinny, butt less skinny, but skinny again…..and with a baby on the way!!!!

I started exercising, just cardio and still hating the gym, but this managed to keep my weight off so I thought it was worth the effort. I looked pretty well dressed but I had no tone, no muscles and no butt, so I decided the easy remedy, butt plastic surgery!!!! I started looking for the different options (implants, fat transfer, threads), until  my sweet and loving husband told me that there was no way he was paying for a fake butt and told me that I had two choices, exercising to build it up or paying for it. I had no money, so I had no other choice to stick to the first option and started doing leg press and all the damned glute machines available at my gym, beside my regular (boring to death) cardio routine.

After several months and very mild results on my flat butt, one day I received an email that changed my life. It was John Barban’s with the pictures of the last Venus Index contest. When I saw the pictures I felt jealous of the blonde in the second place and said “I want that body for myself!!!” But I heard the nasty little voice inside me saying “You are too old for that!!!” 

Browsing the pictures of the past contests I saw Roberta and said to myself… “She is very hot and older than me, I have good genes, a lot of discipline and if she could do it, I can do it too.”  I bought the program, went to Christmas vacation and decided to start in January (diets and programs always start on some Monday of January). Roberta became my role model, I even placed her picture on my fridge, with another one of Linda Hamilton’s arms in Terminator 2.

After following the program to the T, here I am now, three months after, 44 years old with the same waist I had in college, with a ten month old baby, fit and strong as ever and with the toned body I always dreamed of (without exercising, of course). I look better than most of the girls I see at he gym that are less than half my age. Thank you John…thank you Roberta….and thank you hubby for not  paying for my fake butt!!!!

Now I belong to the crazy group of people that can’t have a day without hitting the gym. Rest days are a nightmare!!!

Before and after metric data for Barbara

Barbara’s before pictures at the start of the 12 week contest.

Barbara when she was 50 pounds heavier.

Barbara has become addicted to the gym which can be a Venus side effect.

Listen to Barbara’s interview here, and please “like” it when you’re done:

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